After earning her doctorate she spent two years as a postdoc at the University of Texas at Austin where she worked alongside Alan Cowley.
Carmalt was made a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow at University College London in 1997.
She has held many positions at UCL, including lecturer, professor, vice dean and eventually Head of Department.
[3][4] Carmalt specialises in the synthesis of highly volatile, non-toxic molecular precursors for the growth of thin films of transparent conducting oxides (TCOs).
The materials most commonly used to make TCOs (indium and tin) are available in limited quantities, expensive and complicated to process.